


Red Stripes and White Stars

by greendino



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, F/F, Grey Anatomy au, slow burn sanvers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-19
Updated: 2017-06-19
Packaged: 2018-11-02 18:24:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10950186
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greendino/pseuds/greendino
Summary: She forces down the bile threating to rise in the back of her throat. Her hands are still shaking but she can only focus on one thing at time. She knows once her decision is made its final, there’s no going back. But she does it any way, not fearing the consequences.OrWhen Alex comes back from the army and her nightmares come true. (Slow burn sanvers)Crossover Greys anatomy AU





	1. Chapter 1

Dry hot sand is blown into her face. The Humvee she’s crouched behind is flipped on its side, in the middle of the combat zone. Her unit spread out. Alex scans the surrounding area, noting that Smith and another team member are crouching behind a smoking tank fifty feet behind her. Gunners on the East Ridge have them pinned down.

So much for being on the rescue unit Alex thinks.

As if to solidify her point more gunfire sprays off in the distance.

Alex tightens her grip on her gun; it feels almost foreign in her hands. Out of the corner of her eye she can see Lane and Hartman attempting to fix the portable radio, which had been damaged by shrapnel from an IED.

They had lost their electrical engineer earlier in the attempted rescue. Leaving them with a surgeon and a gunner who believed that they could fix it. Alex had her doubts but wasn’t going to comment on it.

Alex doesn’t have eyes on anyone else in her unit, so she pokes her head above the Humvee to try and get a visual. Before she can gather any useful sightings the Humvee is shot at by the hostiles on the ridge. Alex dives back down away from the shots. The sounds of semi automatic weapons fill the air, as bullets ricochet off of the Humvee.

Smith looks over her to make sure that she’s all right. She gives him a quick thumbs up and a brief nod. Replying verbally would definitely give away her position. Alex begins to crawl to the rear end of the car, raising her riffle to return fire.

She hears more guns begin to shoot off rounds and knows that Smith and Donovan have her back.

Alex lifts her rifle and shoots down a hostile. But for every hostile they shoot two more take their place.

Alex ducks back down behind the Humvee. She lets out a breath of frustration and slides down to a sitting position.

She glances right to Lane and Hartman to see how much progress has been made on the radio. They're about a hundred feet away from her near the door to some buildings. Alex lets a little bit of relief overcome her when she sees Lane barking orders through the radio. Lane notices Alex looking at her and sticks her right arm into the air, twirling her pointer and middle finger. The sign signifying Evac is coming. There’s a brief pause and then Lane holds up five fingers.

In 5 minutes Evac would come and pick them up, Alex nods and signs back to Lucy.

One second is all that is takes for everything to go to shit.

Lane gets shot and drops the radio receiver. Somebody drags her behind a pillar and begins to put pressure on the wound.

Anger flares up within Alex, some reckless soldier hadn’t been watching and now Lucy was paying the ultimate price for it. Alex spots the hit man in the window of a building to the west of them.

The angle isn’t great because she too is on the west side, the Humvee protecting her from the East Ridge. Alex adjusts the scope on her rifle and moves to a crouch position. Once she is satisfied that she has the target in her sights she pulls down on the trigger, bracing herself for the recoil that she knows will come.

There is a click, but nothing happens. She swears under her breath before reaching down to her belt and clipping her final magazine into her gun.

She gets back into her position. Alex closes her eyes briefly. She steadies her breathing one in one out, on her exhale she shoots the man who downed Lucy.

Alex flips her right wrist over to check the time, noticing that there are still three more minutes before Evac would arrive. Lucy is bleeding out and Alex can’t get there because she’s pinned down. Another member of her unit still applies pressure to Lucy’s shoulder but from the distance between them Alex can’t gauge how bad the wound is.

“Hartman put more pressure on it!” Alex yells. She can’t bear the thought of returning home without Lucy, she’s her best friend.

Of course the two surgical medics in the units can’t help. Alex swears under her breath again at being so far away. She can’t help but think it would’ve been more useful to send two trained field medics rather than two surgical medics. Lucy and Alex rarely went into the field; usually they would be back at the base camp treating incoming traumas.

Alex shakes her head and tries to form a plan that would help out Smith and Donovan. Those two are in the most amount of danger, practically sitting ducks.

The hairs on the back of Alex’s neck rise and she fells a cold draft make its way down her back. She whips her head round every which way trying to get a fix on the danger.

Her ears find it first, her eyes a second later. The high pitch whistle of an RPG is unmistakable.

“RPG, RPG!” She yells looking at Smith and Donovan.

Alex had sprung out of her position and began to make her way over to them at a sprint. Part of her knew this was the worst decision she had ever made but in the heat of the moment her choice was final.

Alex’s gear was weighing her down, she wasn’t used to all the extra weigh slowing her movements. She waves at them frantically trying to get them to move out of the way and come towards her before the impact. Instead they just stare at her, seemingly accepting their fates. Donovan shoots her one last sad smile before they’re wiped out.

The explosion knocked her off of her feet. It happened so fast that she barley had time to raise her left arm in a pathetic attempt to shield herself.

When she opened her eyes she could hardly make anything out because of the sand and debris clouding the air. The only thing Alex could focus on was the intense ringing in her ears. She blinked her eyes open a few times trying and failing to make sense of the world around her. She even went as far as to shake her head, but that only made the ringing worse and a wave of nausea roll over her.

Her mind was reeling, telling her to move, telling her that the gunners in the ridge would get her, but her body wasn’t responding. She could hear muted sounds but nothing clear enough to put together. Slowly she was able to regain her movements, wiggling her toes. But when she moved her left arm to push herself off of the ground she felt it. Pain ripped through her like nothing she had ever felt before. Her head hit the ground, and she closed her eyes trying to overcome the pain.

Alex slowly raised her right arm so that she could feel the damage on her left side. Her movements were slow and uncoordinated; her perception was distorted so she ended up accidentally prodding her wounds.

Alex let out a hiss of pain. However she was determined to see what was causing her so much pain. It took almost all her energy and it felt like a lot of time had passed but she was able to move to a sitting position. She allowed herself a moment of congratulations before looking down.

A lot of the left side of her body was covered in thick red blood. Her vest hadn't really helped; it wasn’t build to stop shrapnel. Her heart sped up and pain laced through her chest. Her brain slowly putting two and two together, shrapnel was deeply imbedded in multiple places. The medic in her was screaming at her telling her to do something. But she couldn’t she was frozen, stuck in a trance as she watched herself bleed to death.

Alex slowly looked from piece to piece noticing they were pieces of varying sizes, each piece looking worse than the last. Alex’s breathing was becoming more and more labored.

The last thing she was conscious of before she blacked out was the sound of chopper wings.

\----

Alex bolts up in bed. Sweat had soaked through her sports bra and sweatpants, a thin layer of sweat coating her body. She pushed to covers off of her. Alex closes her eyes tightly and shakes her head. Trying and failing to keep the memories form surfacing.

Alex knows she has to be quiet so she doesn’t wake Lucy, who’s sleeping in the next room over. She turns on the lamp beside her bed, glancing at the clock on her nightstand as she does.

The clock reads 4:43 AM.

Great, she thinks work starts at seven.Alex wipes the back of her hand across her forehead and then smooths her hair down. With a sigh Alex decides that she’s going to start her morning run a little earlier than usual.

She climbs out of bed and stumbles toward her dresser. Alex pulls off her sweatpants revealing a pair of running shorts underneath. She then grabs a shirt from the floor. Slipping the grey t-shirt over her sports bra she blindly reaches for a drawer and retrieves a pair of black cotton socks.

She’s about to leave but decides to write a note for Lucy incase she gets up before Alex comes back. Before she leaves Alex creeps over to the refrigerator and grabs a bottle of water. She then checks the time on her watch, four fifty-two, plenty of time for a few circuits around the park.

Alex locks the door behind her and puts her headphones in, hoping her music will let the morning melt away.


	2. Chapter 2

Maggie has just finished locking her apartment when a shadow appears beside her. She turns quickly, but relaxes when she realizes its only James. 

“Hey its only me.” James says raising his hands in defense.

Maggie’s lips quirk up into a half smile at her friend’s antics. James has been her next-door neighbor since she had first gotten an internship at the hospital. He was a second year resident at the time, but the two became friends fast. The two of them had slowly worked their way up the Polis Hospital food chain. Beginning as low-level interns, remaining at the hospital through their residency, and even through fellowships. This was Maggie’s first year as a General attending, while James was starting his third year as a Plastics attending.

“Hey Maggie, have you heard the news?” James asks. 

Maggie’s eyebrows knot together in brief confusing, her brain trying to play early morning catch up. She’s certain that she didn’t forget a meeting or anything important she was informed of in the past few days.

“What news?” She asks skeptically. 

At this point she begins to think that this may be an attempted hazing by James because today is her first day being an attending.

“Apparently were getting two new attending’s.”

Maggie rolls her eyes and snorts, “Olsen that’s old news I’ve known about that for the past two weeks, ” she replied in an exasperated tone. 

It was too early in the morning to deal with James’s attitude. The whole Hospital already knew that they were in need of two attendings, after their trauma and orthopedics attending’s unexpectedly quit moving to their rival Hospital. 

“Yeah but did you know that they’re both ex-military?” He shot back.

Huh, Maggie thought that was a bit strange. Sure she had heard of such thing happening, but it was incredibly rare. Plus now there were two of them coming to their hospital. She remembers being approached after completing her fellowship with the opportunity, but declined. She had gotten used to National City and didn’t want to leave anytime soon.

Her thinking was cut short when a pair of fingers begun snapping in front of her face. Apparently James had still been talking while she zoned out. 

“As I was saying,” James continued eyeing her as they walked down the stairs together. “ I know this because I saw them leaving the chief’s office last week both dressed in uniform. Next thing we know the positions have been filled. So they obviously got the jobs.”

The pair continues their conversation until they reach the parking lot outside the apartment complex. Stopping once they reach their rides. James’s silver Honda Civic and Maggie’s Triumph Bonneville T100.

\---

James walks Maggie into the attending’s lounge letting her know the dos and don’ts of the space. But soon enough both their pagers are going off. The two shared a glance before running out of the attendings lounge and down the hallways to get to the Ambulance bay.

By this point the two had come to a stop in front of the doors of the ambulance-loading dock. James and Maggie both put on plastic gowns and grab disposable gloves. James finished tying his gown and putting the gloves on before moving towards the doors. Maggie’s just a bit behind him as she finishes putting on her other glove. 

The ambulance had already stopped and the paramedic driving had jumped out to open the doors for the surgeons. When the ambulance the doors opened James and Maggie were stunned with what was being hauled out. 

There was a woman on top of the patient. A short haired red head covered in blood to be exact. She was still wearing workout cloths, and was currently applying pressure to the would. The patient appeared to be a man in his late thirties bleeding out from some kind of abdominal lesion. 

James turned to Maggie with a disappointed glance knowing that this wound wasn’t in his line of work since He was the head of Plastics, while Maggie was a General attending. Maggie smirked back being a general attending would allow her to have this case. 

The red heads voice carried over them; she was talking quickly and confidently saying, “GSW to the lower abdomen, white male late thirties, found at the City Park along one of the trails. He’s got a low BP and I got an I.V in on route. He’s got a lot of internal bleeding and needs to be operated on immediately.”

When the red head finished her spiel the residents along with James and Maggie had their mouths hanging open. That woman was clearly not a paramedic, but she knew what she was talking about. 

The pieces clicked together in Maggie’s head and she realized that this stunning woman was one of the new attendings. If she had to guess she would say trauma. 

Maggie and James looked behind them to see if the residents were going to stop gawking at this stranger. Usually the residents were so busy fighting each other over the gurney to even notice anything about the patient besides what the paramedics say. Now that a mysterious red head was in the mix, that changed. 

Maxwell Lord seemed to be the one of the group to answer the question on everybody’s mind, “Who are you? And what are you doing to the patient?”  
He demanded. 

“Danvers. Alex Danvers, I work here. And currently,” Alex said pausing to blow some of her hair out of her face, “I’m saving this mans life.”

“What! You work here? Since when?” Maxwell asked. Confusion laced his face, as he had never heard that name uttered in acquaintance with the hospital before. Sure Kara Danvers was a Pediatrics Attending but an Alex Danvers, no way. 

“Today.” Alex replied before getting off of the gurney and wheeling the patient inside. The residents, who appeared to be stumbling over each other trying to grab the patient’s chart, quickly followed her. 

James and Maggie shared a look.

“That’s her, well one of them, I just didn’t know Kara’s sister was back much less working here.” James said before turning and walking back into the hospital. Leaving Maggie to grab the door before it closed and scurry inside of the building. All while thinking this is going to be a long day. 

\----

Lucy wasn’t in the slightest bit pleased with Alex. First off Alex had managed to waken her up after she had finally gotten into a deep sleep, but when Alex had closed the door to her flat the sound woke Lucy up. Secondly Alex had already managed to poach a case during her morning run. That girl is just really lucky.

While Lucy was attepting to make breakfast at Alex’s flat Alex had called her saying that she found a man bleeding out from a GSW to the abdomen. Alex had also requested that Lucy bring her bag to Polis because she would be arriving to the hospital via ambulance. After grumbling out a reply, Lucy had continued to try and scrounge up some food. But Alex’s apartment was almost barren of anything edible. Lucy ended up settling for coffee and a granola bar. 

Right as Lucy was about to leave for the hospital she went over her mental checklist one last time, to ensure she had everything. Hair tie check. Wallet check. Keys check. Coffee check. Water check. Watch Check. Extra hair tie check. Lucy’s bag check. Alex’s bag... not check.

After stringing Alex’s bag to her free shoulder she locked the door behind her. Lucy decided to take the stairs in a halfhearted effort to wake herself up. She was by no means a morning person; she didn’t understand how Alex could force herself to get up every morning for a run. 

When she got to the ground level she pushed past the doors and turned left to get to the parking lot. She walked for a few rows before she approached her black pick up; she noticed Alex’s Ducati occupying the spot next to hers. Rolling her eyes she reminded herself that Alex would need to hitch a ride back with her tonight, if she didn’t want to walk back to her apartment. 

Still half asleep Lucy placed the keys into the ignition, the radio immediately roared to life startling her.

“Fuck.” She swears before turning the radio off. She had spilt a bit of coffee on her pants. Breathing out a sigh she fiddled with the dial until the music was at a suitable enough volume to listen to in the morning. 

The song playing was a Queen song, she could live with that she thought to her self. Hell who was she kidding she loved Queen. Normally she would sing along, but after waking up to Alex and spilling her coffee she hadn’t had a good morning and decided against it. 

Lucy pulled out of her parking space and raced out of the lot. Twenty minuets was enough time to get from Alex’s apartment to Polis, if the traffic was in her favor.

The traffic wasn’t in her favor. 

Swearing under her breath Lucy jumped out of her pickup at a run. Some damn ambulance had slowed the traffic in the area congesting the traffic around for miles. She was still in the lot when she saw Alex disembark from said ambulance. Of course that ambulance would be Alex’s. 

Lucy was almost at the door. In the back of her mind she could hear her fathers voice berating her for not arriving earlier. “Early isn’t early enough” as General Lane would say.

She craned her head to the side and could see the ambulance Alex had ridden in getting called back out again, Alex nowhere in sight. Focusing her attention back on the door she saw a man and women go through it.

“Hey hold the door.” Lucy yelled out to the pair.

The door swung closed.

Fantastic Lucy thought to herself, the days getting better and better. Lucy struggled with the two bags and her coffee now attempting to get the door open. Just as she almost had it somebody from the other side pushed the door slowly open for her. 

As she looked up the most attractive man she had seen since coming back to the states greeted her. He was tall, definitely over six feet tall, he had a trimmed down almost clean-shaven head, along with darker skin and strong facial features. He looked almost intimidating, but his eyes gave him away, oh his eyes, they were a deep chocolate brown… and they were staring directly into hers.

After realizing that the door had been held open for at least ten seconds Lucy crossed through and entered the threshold of the Hospital. She would’ve been in awe with the interior, but she was too focused on this tall dark and handsome stranger to care.

The man entered right after she did. He flashed her a quick blinding smile before he stuck out his hand for an introduction. 

“Hey my name’s James Olsen,” The stranger-James said.

“I’m Lucy Lane,” Lucy replied back. Firm handshake she noticed, that was good. 

There was a silent moment where the two just looked at one another, as if they were sizing each other up. James decides to break the almost awkward silence by asking Lucy a question. 

“So I take it you’re the other new attending?” James asked as an unsure question. 

Lucy smiled. “ That would be correct. I was wondering if you could show me where I can find the attendings lounge.” 

James looked her over once more, as if to decide if she was telling the truth before conceding. “After you,” He said gesturing to the elevator about twenty paces to the left.

“My pleasure.” Lucy responds smirking back at James.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to all of you who like the story so far, I'm just gonna keep going with it and hope it turns out well.


	3. Chapter 3

Alex sighed as she reached into her locker to pull out another pair of scrubs. It had only been five hours but it was a long five hours. For starters before her shift had begun she was running through the park on one of the trails when she spotted a lot of commotion and an ambulance pulling up. Alex ran over to assist and ended up getting driven to the hospital as well. She was fully intent on seeing this through to the end but some general attending had kicked her off of the case because she wasn’t already wearing scrubs, making her unable to go into the O.R. Along with some other hospital policies that Alex couldn’t rebut.

Alex slipped on another pair of dark blue attending scrubs and began to walk towards the cafeteria. Kara had promised that she would introduce Alex to all the “good” attendings during lunch. Alex was happy to meet them sooner rather than later.

There was a formal meeting earlier in the attendings lounge, but Alex had missed that due to the trauma she assisted on. Thanks to her photographic memory she was able to find her way to the cafeteria without getting turned around.

Alex looked around the cafeteria and notice that Kara had yet to arrive. The surrounding tables were made up of nurses and residents getting a quick bit to eat before resuming their shifts. She rolled her eyes, it was typical for Kara to be late but now this was pushing it. It felt like high school all over again, eating alone in the cafeteria.

She made her way over to the counter and got a turkey and cheese sandwich. It was nothing special but it would do. The sandwich along with a bag of pretzels and chocolate pudding made up her lunch. Just as she was sitting down she spotted Kara with a few others entering the cafeteria and laughing.

Kara notices her immediately and smiles showing all her pearly whites. She offers an excited wave before pointed to the gowning food line. Alex just smiles and nods in response knowing that Kara loves food more than anything.

The trio sits down at the table Alex was occupying. Surprisingly Alex recognizes all of them. Kara is sitting right across from her. James, Kara’s best friend and renowned plastic surgeon, is sitting to Alex’s right. The last one is the general attending form earlier who kicked Alex off of her case.

Kara begins introductions, “James Maggie this is Alex, my sister. She’s the new head of the trauma department.” She paused for a moment before looking at Alex. “Alex this is James Olsen head of plastics and Maggie Sawyer a general surgeon.”

Alex and Maggie stare at each other for a few tense seconds. It looked like they were sizing each other up. Other than a small discussion between Alex and Maggie about the events from earlier in the morning lunch was going smoothly.

If Kara were to as Alex later about it, she would admit begrudgingly that they were good attendings that she could see herself befriending.

Alex snapped back to the present, annoyed at herself for zoning out. Right now Kara was sharing a story form when she was on Cat Grants service before she became the chief. This is Alex’s favorite story that Kara had told her, and by the look on Kara’s face as she was explaining it, it was moving for Kara as well.

Flashback--

“Oh my God. She’s dead? She’s dead.” Kara was beginning to panic. Thoughts were streaming through her head a minute a mile. She was to busy thinking that her medical career was over to hear Cat say, “I never said that.”

“I- I remember doing everything-”

“Keira. Keira!” Cat tried to interrupt. But Kara is too busy envisioning her future self selling sunglasses at a kiosk in the local mall to even hear what her mentor is trying to say.

“I even--I even remember doing everything correctly.”

“Kara! She’s fine!” Cat continued, “I never said she was dead, I just never said that she made it to CT.”

“You’re messing with me.”

“I didn’t take her to CT because I saw you complete the appendectomy correctly in the O.R.”

The two of them stare at each other for a moment before the silence is broken with, “Oh my God. Oh my God! You have a problem!”

“No you have a problem.” Cat continued stepping closer to Kara. “ This is the first solo surgery you have done in your career and you’re second guessing yourself.” She paused for a minute to let that sink in before continuing, “Your patients need to trust that when you take them into surgery you are confidant in what you are doing. How can you expect them to trust you, when you can’t even trust yourself.”

Kara stared her down for a short moment before saying “You are so…mean.”

“I know,” she said with a smirk, “Tell all of your friends.”

End Flashback--

Alex’s pager starts going off. “Hey sorry guys but I got to go.” She says before standing and running out of the cafeteria. She doesn’t notice that way the Maggie’s eyes follow her out of the cafeteria. She was in full surgeon mode, the ETA for the patient was two minutes out and she would be lucky if she made it down to the E.R in that time.

“Make a hole!” she shouts at some nurses gathered in the hallway. In the back of her head she knows that its not a good idea to get on the bad side of the nurses, but she cant be bothered enough to care at the moment.

When Alex gets down to the pit the patient is being pulled in. The two paramedics immediately begin to address her and detail the stats of the patient, along with a brief summary of what happened.

“Female late twenties, car versus bike. Systolic 135, diastolic 87. She’s just prehypertension.” One of the paramedics rattles off.

She spots one of the residents she knows by name, “Winn lets go it’s a cyclist versus car.”

\--

“Suction.”

“There’s a lot of blood. The suction keeps clogging up.” One of the interns tells Alex. Alex glances over towards them, she doesn’t remember the interns name but she can tell just by facial expressions that this one is starting to panic.

“Adjust the angle and lower your hand.” Alex replies calmly to the panicking intern. “Winn lets check the bowel.”

“Ok I got it.” Winn begins moving his hands slowly down the large intestine. He needs to make sure there aren’t any abrasions on in where fluid could be leaking out.

Lucy comes barging in through the doors to the O.R. “Hey I got your page.” An O.R nurse reaches behind her and ties the tassels of her surgical gown closed. Lucy looks up to the picture that the portable x-ray has showing. “Hmm the pelvic break is near the femoral artery. Is she loosing a lot of blood?”

Alex shoots her a look. Even though her mask is covering the majority of her face Lucy can still see the really? in her eyes.

“Suction.” Alex repeats to the intern, while Lucy makes her way over to the table. “Alright suction isn’t doing anything, just scoop it out with your hands. Get right in there.”

Alex continues to put in more clamps. “The livers exsanguinating. More suction.”

Lucy begins the start clearing bone fragments form the butterfly fracture in an attempt to control the bleeding.

“Hang another bag of blood”

“Doctor we’ve replaced her entire blood volume.” One of the surgical nurses says facing Alex.

Alex doesn’t want to hear that right now, but a voice in the back of her head is telling her that they’ve reached the point of no return. If they want to offer this patient even a chance they should stop the surgery and pack her, then put her in the I.C.U under observation for the next twenty four hours.

The little nagging voice gets louder in Alex’s head, she knows she should listen to it but she really wants a good result.

The patient was crushed with 5000 pound of car; Alex doesn’t want to be doing damage control she wants to fix the problem. The patient needs an intact liver to make it through the night, after that they could give operating another chance.

Alex looks around the table Lucy is still working on the broken bone, her face is set in deep concentration. Winn is still checking the gut for injuries and the other intern is still suctioning. It’s at this point Alex realizes they’re loosing and uphill battle. They’re going to have to pack the patent and wait it out.

“Everyone stop fixing and begin packing, her body can’t take any more trauma today.” The words leave a bad taste in her mouth.

Reluctantly everyone does as Alex had said. The sponges inserted near the liver turn red with the leaking blood, but with enough of them the bleeding will slow to a stop.

Only Alex and Lucy stay behind to close the patient, besides for the nurses. They don’t talk as they work but the two slip back into their routine and get it done quickly. As they’re scrubbing out Lucy notices that Alex has a slight frown on her face.

“Hey I know that look.” She begins still scrubbing her hands. “It’s the look of defeat that says I should have done better or I could have done more.”

Alex doesn’t appear to be actively listening to what Lucy has to say. Lucy stops scrubbing her hands and turns to face Alex. “Alex. You did all you could now it’s her job to fight it out until tomorrow. I know this is not what you want to hear right now, but it’s what you need to. This isn’t going to be all sunshine and rainbows, this will be hard, and we will lose patients. You can handle that, right?”

Lucy knows that she’s pushing Alex; hell she’s toeing the line. But over the past two years spent with Alex oversea she has her figured out.

Alex breaks her silence. “Yeah I know Lucy, it’s just not how I wanted my first day to go. ”

Neither comments on how the patient probably wont make it through the night. The bleeding was too excessive and the trauma too much for her body to withstand. Instead Lucy says “Come on I’ll get you a cup of coffee and tell you how my days been so far.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took so long to update, I'll try to be faster about it. Anyways hope you guys enjoyed this chapter.


	4. Chapter 4

“Hey Danvers, wait up!”

Alex turns around and sees Maggie jogging down the hospital hallway. Alex’s shift finished over an hour ago so its no surprise when she sees another attending staying later. Alex pauses her walking and proceeds to watch Maggie run the rest of the way to her.

Maggie finally catches up to her, she’s a little out of breathe when she starts speaking but that doesn’t deter her. “So I know this place near the hospital, it’s a great place to unwind after a shift. I promise its not sketchy or anything I’ve been going there for years.”

Alex it torn in her answer part of her wants to go home and sleep her day off, but the other part is enticed by Maggie’s offer. As if sensing this Maggie offers a deal breaker “Come on.” Maggie smiles her dimples on full display, “they have pool.”

Ale can’t help but admire how cute her dimples are. She shakes her head a little in an attempt to clear those thoughts from her mind. “Ok Sawyer we’ll go.” Alex turns and begins walking again. “How near is it, do you want me to follow you?”

Maggie smirks and shakes her head, “Nah we can walk its not far I promise.”

Alex raises an eyebrow at the response but says nothing more. The two exit the hospital and begin heading towards a place Maggie called Dollywood.

\--

They’re talking and having a good time before they get there. It about five to ten minutes away from the hospital at the slow walk they were going. Alex has passed god knows how many bars on the way over there and is really hoping that they don’t go into one.

Maggie stops in front of a dingy rundown looking hole in the wall. The only reason Alex knows this place is open is because of the green neon sign reading Dollywood. There aren't groups of people hanging around outside like a frequently visited place would have. Alex looks at the outside and takes the no people loitering as a sign, she's been in enough of these to know what this is.

Maggie holds the door open for Alex, “After you.”

Alex looks around and her suspicions are confirmed, it’s a dive bar. She turns to Maggie very underwhelmed with the situation. “This is your hook up, a dive bar?”

Maggie lifts an eyebrow in challenge, “Things aren’t all as they seem, look around Danvers. What do you see?”

“People who have made questionable life choices.” Alex snarks back.

Maggie huff out a breath unperturbed by the reaction she’s getting. This was her first reaction as well. “Danvers I’ve taken you here because it’s the home away from home.”

Alex is surveying the place getting a closer look at the other customers in the bar. She gets the distinct feeling that she’s seen more than a few of these people before. It’s bothering her that she can’t place them.

“When I fist came here my reaction as the same as yours.” Maggie doesn’t seem to notice Alex is too busy looking around at the crowd of faces she recognized but couldn’t piece together when she had seen them before. Because of this she has yet focus one hundred percent at what Maggie is saying. “Honestly I don’t know how this place became the hospital hang out afterhours but it did.”

That’s when the pieces finally click for her.

The table they’re sitting beside is full of nurses. The groups hanging out at the bar are the residents. There are a few attendings playing darts in the back. Alex wants to face palm, how could she not have seen this before.  
Before she can say anything I respond to Maggie a waitress comes by their table, “Hi what can I get you two tonight?”

Maggie looks at Alex for a moment before placing her order. “Whisky on the rocks please.”

Alex can feel her palms sweating; her leg has stared to bounce to its own tune under the table. She hasn’t been in a bar in seven months. Part of her believes this is the only reason she has been sober for that long. The temptation is definitely there, she glances quickly around the room and see all the people enjoying themselves. She’s almost decided that one drink wouldn’t hurt, when she looks back at Maggie. Maggie is looking at her very curiously her head is tilted to the side and it looks like she’s studying Alex’s face.

That need for a drink is still in the back of her head but she refuses to give in, “I’ll have club soda thanks.”

Half of her feels relived at the decision the other half feels disappointed. Maggie doesn’t question her choice for which she is thankful. Alex feels like she should wait a bit longer than a few weeks to tell her that she’s an alcoholic. That wouldn’t do, especially in a bar.

The two make small talk until their drinks arrive. Alex takes a deep inhale, she can smell the whiskey from Maggie glass at her side for the table. She looks around the bar trying to find something to focus on. She spies an empty pool table.

“Round of pool?” She asks Maggie.

“Sure, but be prepared to lose.” Maggie takes a sip of her drink before adding, “Loser buys the next round?”  
“Deal.”

 

\--

 

“Dr. Luthor!” A nurse called, trotting over to them. “Dr. Willis’s post op aortic ulcer patient is coughing up blood.”

Lena turns Putting her pen into her lab coats front pocket and begins to walk towards the room the nurse is standing out side of. “Did you page Dr. Willis?” She questions.

“She’s in surgery and cant come up.”

Lena glances back towards her interns. “Ok one of you suction and prepare for intubation.” Lena takes her stethoscope from around her neck and puts the ear tips into her ears.

The nurse hands one of Lena’s interns the suction and the intern begins to clear out the blood from the patients throat.

Lena is still listening to the patents hear and doesn’t like what she’s hearing. She lips twitch wanting to frown but she schools her face. The patient is looking up at her with a scared look on his face.

Lena motions with her eyes at the other intern who has just been standing by and watching. He comes over to her and she whispers just loud enough for him to hear “Say something that will make him feel better.”

The intern nods his head before moving closer to the patient head and saying You’re going to be just fine,” in a loud commanding voice.

Lena shoots him a quick scathing look before muttering, “Don’t over sell it.” She takes the stethoscope away from her ears and hands it back around her neck.

The intern who is suctioning looks up at Lena. “What do you think it is?”

Lena’s brain is working through all the possibilities, she has yet to come to a solid conclusion so she decides to talk it out and see how far that gets her. “It could be a fistula, could be a dissection…” She trails off looking at the patient’s vitals. She nods her head to herself the decision has been made. “We wont know more until we get more studies and open him up.”

“Yes!” The other intern exclaims excitedly.

The other two look at him. Lena even lifts an eyebrow at that particular comment, interns were known to be chomping at the bit to operate, but smiling when someone has to go into surgery was crossing the line. The intern looks down and says “Sorry.” At least he has the decency to look guilty about it Lena thinks.

“Get a repeat C.T stat and Prep an O.R, you guys are both scrubbing in. I need all hands.” The interns share an awed expression before Lena breaks the moment firmly saying “Now.”

One of the interns clears the room quickly and the other hangs up the suctioning equipment before vacating the room, all while Lena and the nurse begin to prep the patient for surgery.

 

\---

“Can someone suction for me?”

The interns say, “I can do it” in unison. Simultaneously reaching for the suctioning instrument. Not wanting to have a grabbing match over a patient Lena comes up with a fair idea. “Wait! Earn it. You,” She says motioning her chin towards one of her interns “What are we looking at on the scans.”

The intern turns around eager to please his attending, “A dissection in the ascending aorta...” He pauses for a second unsure before saying “ With an aorta bronchiole fistula.” His voice is higher at the end making it sound some where between a question or just being uncertain of his reported findings.

“Good. Suction. Ok now you,” She says this time nodding towards the other intern “Why did Willis opt for a vascular repair of this Ulcer?”

“I—uh… personal preference?” She stammers.

The other intern perks up “ The patients age and limited mobility.”

Lena nods agreeing with this statement. “Keep suctioning.” Lena pauses what she is doing for a moment realizing that this was an excellent teaching opportunity. She hands a chest clamp to the intern who isn’t suctioning and instructs her on where she would like in placed. “Yeah just like that. Ok now what do we see?”

The chest space had been opened up with the clamp and allowed the interns to see into the chest cavity more.

“Oooooh Oooh!” The intern holding the clamp says eagerly. If she wasn’t holding onto the clamp Lena bets that she would have raise her hand like they were in a classroom and the teacher was calling on them.

“Ok go.” Lena concedes, it makes her happy knowing that her interns are getting excited over a discovery.

“It looks like the stent tore though the aorta and bronchus.”

Lena nods her head in acceptance. “Give me a 3-0 (pronounce 3-oh) propene.” The surgical nurse wordlessly responds handing over the material. Lena begins with the aorta when more bleeding starts. She sighs, “This is going to be a mess.”

\---

Lena is standing at one of the nurse’s stations finishing her post operation notes when her two interns approach her. One of them stands right beside her and starts speaking. “The patients on his way to C.C.U and all vitals are stable.”

Lena nods her head. She was expecting as much as soon as they got the bleeding under control the surgery was smooth sailing.

The other inter smugly says “Dr. Luthor for the win.” He then tries to offer her a high five. The two look at one another before he slowly lowers his hand.

“Dr. Luthor.” A voice interrupts the awkward tension starting to build in the area. Lena turns around. Her eyes glisten in vague recognition of the person calling her name.

“When did Dr. Willis’s non invasive repair turn into a bilateral thoracotomy with bypass?”

Lena stands up straighter and faces the woman head on before speaking. “When Leslies stent tore through the patients aorta.”

“You couldn’t find the time to consult with Willis first?”

The interns are looking at each other unsure if they should still be there.

“Yeah I tried but she was in surgery.”

The woman smiles “You have backbone, I like it.”

All of a sudden the pieces click together and Lena realizes who this woman is and why she recognizes her.

“I’m sure I don’t have to introduce my self but I will do it anyways. I’m Cat Grant, Chief of National city general Hospital.” She pauses for a short moment, letting that sink in before continuing, “and I want you as the new head of my cardiothoracic department.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed. I'll update when I can.


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